Cylons are a fictional race of robots in the original Battlestar Galactica TV series. They are the primary antagonists of the series and are at war with the Twelve Colonies of humanity. The Cylons also appeared in the short-lived 1980 spin-off series Galactica 1980.
The Cylons were created by a reptilian race, also called Cylons. However, the reptilian race died out centuries earlier leaving behind only their race of robots.
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Imperious Leader is the leader of the Cylon Alliance and highest Cylon model. The Imperious Leader is an IL-Series Cylon with some extra augmentation, including a third brain and a body shell resembling the reptilian Cylons. It is stated in the original novelization of the pilot episode that the Imperious Leader's third brain is specifically designed to emulate the human mind (solely for the purpose of anticipating human actions). One was killed at the Battle of Carillon (pilot episode) and his successor was possibly destroyed during the Battle of Gamoray (episode: "The Living Legend - part 2"). In the original 1978-79 series, the voice of the Imperious Leader is identical to that of Count Iblis (both voices were performed by Patrick Macnee). In the Galactica 1980 episode "Space Croppers", the voice of the Imperious Leader was performed by Dennis Haysbert. All of the Imperious Leaders look identical.
IL-series Cylons act as commanders for the military and governors for civilians of the Alliance . They have two brains, and a mostly transparent head through which various lights can be seen pulsing. They also have a metallic, humanoid face with two eye scanners (compared to the single eye scanner of the Centurion models), and wear clothing (full-length glittering robes). Two IL-series Cylons have been seen onscreen, both of which have an effete human-sounding voice, unlike the flat mechanical tones of Centurions. They are:
Lucifer refers to the second Imperious Leader as being upgraded from being a IL-model like himself.
Command Centurion are Centurions with gold armor. These are the lower commanders for individual military units, though they can be responsible for entire Basestars and garrisons. The most well-known Cylon of this model is Commander Vulpa in "The Gun on Ice Planet Zero". Their voices are slightly lower pitched than regular Centurions.
In the novelization of the original series it is stated that there is an elite class of Command Centurions (referred to as First Centurions), roughly equivalent to feudal Counts, which act as executive officers to the Imperious Leader and are not subordinate to the IL-Series, and (like the IL-series) they were also said to have multiple brains. In the TV series these are actually seen on screen, though very rarely, and are distinguished from other Command Centurions by black bands on their gold armor. Vulpa was originally of this class but had been demoted and stationed on ice planet Arcta.
Military androids with silver armor. Basic Centurions make up the ground forces and pilots of the Alliance military. Centurions are armed with a powerful energy weapon, often referred to as a blaster rifle. They also have bayonets and swords for close combat and the execution of prisoners. Although Earth's Roman Centurions commanded a unit of eighty men, Cylon Centurions form the rank and file of the Cylon forces. Some Centurions in the series have been given names: Flight Leader Serpentine from "Saga of a Star World", Centuri from "The Night the Cylons Landed" (Galactica 1980), and Cyrus from "The Return of Starbuck" (also Galactica 1980). In the episode "The Lost Warrior", there is a Cylon Centurion that remained active after its ship crashed on the planet Equellus and was named "Red Eye" by the humans who found it.
The Cylon Centurions – the type most often depicted in the original Battlestar Galactica — were strikingly similar to the Imperial stormtroopers of Star Wars (in fact, both were designed by the same concept artist, Ralph McQuarrie). The similarities were so strong that it was one of the factors that prompted 20th Century Fox's lawsuit for copyright infringement against Universal Studios, the owners of Battlestar Galactica. However, the lawsuit was ultimately unsuccessful.
The Cylon Centurions voicing was done on an EMS Vocoder 2000 [1] and voiced by Michael Santiago.
There is also a unique Cylon with glittering robes, with a metallic humanoid face. They are seen in the Imperious Leader's delegation to Gamoray in "The Living Legend". This is evidently some kind of civilian Cylon, as Gamoray is said to have a very large community of civilian Cylons, though how civilian Cylon society differs from its military is never explored.
Two Cylon humanoids are featured in the episode "The Night the Cylons Landed" of Galactica 1980, one of which is named Andromus. This model is an android and has a superficial human appearance (and a condescending attitude toward Centurions), though is entirely mechanical beneath its artificial skin.
Cylons employ several spacecraft models, such as
In the 1978 Galactica movie and series and the 1980 spin-off, the Cylons were created by an extinct reptilian race that were also called Cylons, as related by Apollo in the premiere episode. In the episode "War of the Gods", Count Baltar mentions that he recognizes Iblis's voice as that of the Cylon leader, and Iblis counters that if that was true it must have been "transcribed" over a thousand yahren (years) ago.
At the beginning of the series the Cylons are singularly devoted to the destruction of humanity. The war started when the Cylon Empire sought to expand into the territory of the Hasaries, and the Human Colonies intervened on behalf of the conquered Hasaries. Due to those events, the Cylon Empire now viewed the entire human race as a target.
Cylons are led by the Imperious Leader, an IL-Series Cylon elevated to a supreme leadership position over all Cylons. All Cylons from the IL-series down, typically repeat the phrase "By Your Command" when responding to any order.
The Cylon Empire is also responsible for tributary powers under the aegis of the Cylon Alliance. The Ovions (an insectoid race enslaved by the Cylons and transported to the planet Carillon for mining purposes) are the only known member of the Cylon Alliance shown onscreen. Aside from the Ovions and (the defeated) Hasaries, the only other known race conquered by the Cylons are the Delphians, which are mentioned to have been exterminated in "The Living Legend".
Cylon society appears to be almost exclusively military. Until the discovery of Gamoray, which the Colonial fleet had targeted for its rich fuel reserves, no civilian Cylon outpost had ever been seen by anyone.
The Berklee book series also explored two other aspects of Cylon design. The first is the development of multiple brain status. This allows Cylons additional thinking and deductive abilities. The second is an unexplained talent for knowing when a human is lying, which was suggested in the episode The Lost Warrior.
Presented in The Gun on Ice Planet Zero book, multi-brain status is presumed to be the upgraded inclusion of an auxiliary brain unit, allowing for higher-level thinking abilities. The command centurion and garrison commander on planet Tairac, Vulpa, demonstrated this ability.
According to the Maximum Press comic of Battlestar Galactica, just prior to the start of The Thousand Yahren War, the Cylon imperious leader made a deal with the mysterious and demonic Count Iblis (meaning "Satan" in the Arabic language) to betray his entire race in exchange for power that would allow him to "become like Count Iblis." Count Iblis lied about the process of "empowerment" and changed the imperious leader into a cybernetic entity, more machine than being. Enraged, the imperious leader swore revenge and became more and more driven by conquest and warfare.
In the Maximum Press comic, the Cylons were originally led by a ruthless, conquest and expansionism-driven emperor named Sobekkta, one of the original living Cylons, who were a race of intelligent fully evolved reptiles.
The Cylons also appear in the official computer game adaptation, which is a prequel to both the original and re-imagined series.
Larami came out with a bubble toy in 1978 called the Battlestar Galactica Cylon Bubble Machine as well as a line of other inexpensive toys.[4]
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